Huawei, Ericsson (NYSE: ERIC), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and NEC controlled 70 percent of the point-to-point microwave transmission equipment market in the second quarter, according to the latest stats from Dell'Oro.

An aggressive 41 percent quarter-over-quarter revenue growth rate propelled Huawei to the top spot, followed by Ericsson in second place, Alcatel-Lucent in third and NEC in fourth.

Fueled by the rising demand of mobile data services, the microwave transmission equipment market grew 13 percent sequentially, reaching $960 million in the second quarter.

"The microwave market turned in its highest growth rate since the second quarter 2012 but nevertheless fell short of historical revenue levels as use of microwave systems for mobile backhaul remained low," said Jimmy Yu, vice president of microwave transmission research at the Dell'Oro Group.

"We do, however, anticipate that this sub-billion dollar market trend will reverse during the remainder of the year as mobile operators drive their LTE network expansion into additional geographic regions where using microwave systems will be preferred over laying additional fiber," Yu added.

Infonetics Research predicts that the microwave equipment market will reach $5.2 billion in 2017, fueled by the demand for backhaul capacity at macrocell sites.

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